Tobi Lütke, CEO of Shopify, recently posted a letter to employees announcing a reduction in internal meetings and an AI restructuring initiative. Buried in that announcement was a sentence that hit like a cold splash of water:

“Before asking for more Headcount and resources, teams must demonstrate why they cannot get what they want done using AI.”

There it is: the quiet part, said out loud. AI job displacement isn’t some future scenario. It’s already happening at one of the most tech-forward companies in the world.

The disruption is upon us. AI will bring benefits, efficiencies, and entirely new opportunities. But it will also come with real costs. One of those is job loss, and as Shopify’s CEO makes clear, that phase has already begun.